Glamping

Recently I burned about eight gallons of diesel brushing-out 3.5 miles of trails, a six acre wildlife opening and the ancestral campsite.  Campsite, you ask?  Yup; in the early years it was there we camped.  Eventually we purchased a park model trailer home, The Villa, adjacent to Potawotomi State Park and commuted back and forth from there to here and back.  Yup; we lived in a trailer park too.  And then eventually built a house (second home) and finally moved here permanently.

Over the years the Missus and I have been acquainted (and married) we've done a great deal of camping.  We've camped across the breadth of Canada, south to the Gulf of Mexico, all of the southwestern US, most of Wisconsin and we even took a Jeep trip off-road across the rocky mountains.

With two homes, a tree farm to maintain and the creep of maturity and eventually retirement the camping itch doesn't need much of a scratch.  Nevertheless, from time to time and on special occasions  we'll still pitch a tent, and cook over a fire or a camp stove.  We've saved all the camping gear and have our own private campsite down by Silver Creek.

I can bake a campfire dutch oven pizza, the best pudgie pie on the planet and have special kind of s'mores recipe in case you're interested. 

Anyway, the ancestral campsite has been cleaned-up.  A rough-cut with the Rhino bush hog...

Followed by a trim with a weed whacker...   

The original picnic table from more than three decades ago has been returned to its proper place.  I even added a Leopold bench for good measure.

We don't have electrical or water hook-ups.  But we have clear dark skies at night, no bothersome  drunken neighbors keeping you up until 2 AM and all the free firewood you need to roast a wienie and keep your tootsies toasty.  We even have a shitter.  You have to bring your own roll; butt the view is spectacular.  Pun intended.

Think of it as the first iteration of glamping.

Raising a toast to fun times out-of-doors and around the campfire.

Bushwhacking

Recent cool weather has been a welcome relief on multiple levels; including the chores list.

This is an odd-numbered year which means that several wildlife openings and the ancestral campsite receive a haircut.  Actually a close clipping with the Rhino mower hitched to the back of the tractor and connected to the Power Take Off (PTO).

At 540 RPM, sharp blades and with a five foot cutting deck you can take town brush (slowly) almost up to an inch in diameter. 

Yesterday I finished the larger of the meadows - a six acre one located on the northeast corner of the property that also sports a deer hunting tower - Clayton 2.0.  With a commanding view for hundreds of yards and a haircut no whitetail is gonna be able to sneak past a hunter with a straight-shooting deer rifle.

Anyway, it's done.  All the tall grass, emergent willow and dogwood have been brushed-out.  My casual observation is that there is an incredible amount of ash seedlings in the turf along with all sorta native wildflowers and grasses that have migrated more than a quarter mile to establish themselves.  A mowing won't hurt them.  Finally, over the last three clippings I've spared about twenty tamarack and oaks that have taken-up residence in the turf.  The oaks aren't as likely to survive the bunnies and deer unless I install a collar (tree tube) around them.  It's a low priority chore; time will tell.

In case you're wondering wildlife opening are important in that they create additional "edge habitat" important for a diverse collection off wildlife.  100% open isn't any better than 100% forest.  Variety is the key. 

Final result...

Panorama southeast

View north

Deer stand  

Volunteer swamp white oak 

 

 

Summer Blooms

It's gotten cooler the last couple of days and we've been delighted to turn-off the AC, open some windows and spend time outdoors for fresh air, exercise and chores.

From our walk yesterday morning there is stiff goldenrod, wild bergamot (bee balm), black-eyed Susans and flowering turkey foot (big bluestem)….

 

Cordless

This isn't some sort of new-fangled kitchen appliance and it isn't even mine - although I suppose I'll be allowed to use it from time-to-time.

Cordless, battery-powered, 12 inch chainsaw by DeWalt. 

It is for The Frau.  Everyone's wife should have one... 

Trail Maintenance

Now that the primary nesting season (for ground-nesting birds) is behind us the primary brushing-out of 3.5 miles of trails is upon us. 

 

 

Not pictured is a Rhino Brush Hog mounted on the hitch and connected to the rear PTO.  Ordinarily, I would remove the bucket from the tractor but today there were a half-dozen dead ash trees to shift out of the way.  

 

After two days the trails are complete.  The campsite and a couple of wildlife openings remain as the heaviest lift so I'm still a bit far from the finish line.

 

Brushing a quarter mile east west trail a doe and her fawn came out to observe.  Interesting behavior inasmuch as the noise made by the machinery is deafening.

 

  

The trails will receive a ‘trim cut’ just before the bow opener…

Cartoon Of The Day

When you know; you know...

  

The Garden Chronicles

After amending my crappy Door County soil that makes up my garden with four bales of peat moss and eight bags of composed manure I tilled it once before the rains came.  After it dried-out I rototilled it again.

May 15 - I planted peas, two varieties of radish and sowed three types of lettuce.

Peas emerged a couple of days ago...

click on image for a closer look

And the radishes peeked-out yesterday... 

 

 

Today I planted seven varieties of tomato plants - including a couple of San Marzano I scored at a new greenhouse; two basil, a rosemary and Italian parsley plant constituted the herbs.  This was followed by four sweet pepper and five broccoli plants.  I sowed a row of beets, green beans and an additional variety of lettuce.  Yes, fresh salads are in our future; fingers crossed.

If time allows; tomorrow I'll sow the pumpkins and cukes and whatever else trips my trigger.  When you live halfway between the equator and the North Pole the growing season is short.  Time's a wastin!

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

Stinky Business

As a younger man I never considered I would be in the waste water treatment business.  Alas, I have a Private Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems (POWTS).  

Such is rural life.

Three year inspection and pump.

Passed with flying colors.

Raising a toast to cleaning the filter twice a year a scheduled intervals.

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

It is raining today which is good.  It's even better that I got the garden tilled yesterday.

Spread eight bags of composted manure, four bales of peat moss along with a sprinkling of triple 19 fertilizer over the top and turned it all under with the rototiller.  A good all day light soak will settle it all together in preparation for a follow-up tilling and early planting of my cool weather crops; namely radishes, spinach and lettuces.

Cool weather you ask?  Yes, when you live halfway between the equator and North Pole recent overnight lows continue to hover around 40F.

The only hitch in this springtime ritual was a flat tire on the tiller.  It took awhile to get the bead to seat on the tubeless tire to inflate it.  Unremarkably, WD-40 fixes everything. 

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

Old Ride

Weekend errands with my 28 year-old Chevy Silverado pickup.

Always starts on the first pull. 

 

Bonus is Marshall Tucker Band.

 

I have a cassette player; and you don’t….

 

 

Affordable Housing

Inspected and cleaned nest boxes today. Fifty of them. 

 

Evicted four families of mice and in a Caddy Shack moment Jill was attacked by a squirrel hiding in a box.

 

After three decades of building these this is the final nest box design. Constructed of cedar they’re very durable. The right side wall flips-up for cleaning or inspection.   Took a page from Henry Ford's book on manufacturing - interchangeable parts make for efficient repairs.  Affordable housing for cavity nesting songbirds.

 

 

Our woods was thinned during COVID and now that the canopy has been opened all sorta natural regeneration is happening.  Like these spruce seedlings. 

 

The resident pileated woodpeckers are disassembling this snag.

 

 

Recently deceased coyote. I wonder what the backstory is.

 

 

Fetched a load of firewood from the north forty. Including a Smirnoff Ice bottle from the ditch.  Not from my tribe.

 

A whitetail that didn’t survive winter.   I wonder about the backstory. 

 

 

Me and my side kick catching some rays with a Guatemalan Lager

 

 

Big Brown Bat

This critter met a terrible end.  With the start of the new year I swapped-out the furnace filter at its predetermined schedule and found this mummified surprise waiting for me.  

Meet Eptesicus fuscus - the Big Brown Bat.  Most of the time I find these occupying a songbird nest box or spot them flitting-about on a summer evening.  It's likely they hang-out (pun intended) from the rafters in the granary.  This critter likely found its way into the house via the fresh air intake for the furnace last fall following the October filter swap.  This species of bat likes to roost in houses over winter.

An insectivore this critter inhabits woodlands, farmlands and urban settings.  Maternity colonies can be found in hollow trees.  Their vocalizations include high-pitched clicks and the squeals of pups calling to mom.  They mate in August - September before hibernation and give birth to 1-2 (usually 2) pups from May to July.  Pups are capable of flight by 18 to 35 days.     

I feel badly for this one. Bats are good critters to have around, mice not so much.  Memo to self to install screens on the air-intakes this spring.

 

The Perfect Saturday

 

Overnight and continued snow have brought countless birds to the feeders this morning. Consequently, my trusty side kick and I made the rounds of replenishing the feeders in the yard around the house.

Followed by a romp in the new-fallen snow. 

 

 

Ruby lit her Rocket Mode and tore-up a pile of yardage in a flagrant expenditure of puppy energy. Doggo sure luvs herself some winter.

 

Refilled the wood box last. 

 

I have a vision of a book by the fire and a sleepy dog.  This is what a winter Saturday should be…

Dump Run

Trip to the dump today.  

Two barrels of mixed recyclables and three tall kitchen bags of garbage.

Unlike city dwellers - who enjoy municipal curbside garbage and recyclables pick-up - in rural America you have to haul your trash and recyclables to the town waste disposal facility (the dump).  Sure, we could pay extra to an outside contractor for end-of-the-driveway pick-up of a couple of carts.  But considering the minimal amount of waste we generate it doesn't seem economical.  Besides, a trip to the dump is something of a social affair on a Saturday morning and I'm almost guaranteed to bump into someone I know and have the opportunity for some idle chit chat and local gossip.  Moreover, I can combine it with a stop at the grocery or general store in town.  

The vehicle in the picture is our first and only pick-up truck - a 1998 Chevy 1500 Silverado 4X4 with a towing package and a matching cap on the back.  We took delivery of it in early autumn of 1997 which means it celebrates its 28th birthday this coming fall.

It has made multiple trips to Canada and the Gulf Coast and everywhere in between, pulled a boat countless times for fishing and recreational cruising and has hauled more dead deer than I can count.

It lives in its own stall in the machine shed, doesn't leak or leave spots on the concrete and started this morning in 14 degree weather on the first crank.  You can tell by looking at it it's pretty clean.  It even has an AM/FM cassette stereo.  In a couple more years I suppose it officially becomes an antique.

At 135,000+ miles it doesn't owe me a thing and at least once a year someone will approach me and ask if it's for sale.  It isn't.  A similarly-equipped Chevy today would cost about what I paid for my first house in 1984.  Scary, eh? 

Ever See A Ghost?

Yesterday I was out running errands and stopped at the Havegärd Bird Feed Outlet Store to replenish my dwindling stock of wild bird seed.  If you've never been be sure to check them out.  Likely the best selection and pricing for large quantities of bird feed and supplies on the planet.  East side of highway 42/57 just south of the Sturgeon Bay.  I digress.  

 

Upon entering the store the guy at the register asked if I had something to take a photo.  To which I replied:  You bet.  Got my phone with me.  Gesturing, he said to go outside and checkout what was perched on the utility pole at the side of the road.

click on image for a closer look

Meet Bubo scandiacus.  A snowy owl.  Yowza cool!  It is not unusual to learn of reports of them appearing along the Lake Michigan coastline in the winter months; yet observing one in person is an event worthy of celebration.

This is a big bird tipping the scales at 3.5 to 6.5 pounds.  Standing up to 28 inches in height and with a wingspan of up to 4.8 feet this is the largest owl in North America.  It sports bright white plumage, large yellow eyes and larger feathered talons.  Home territory to this bird is the treeless tundra above the Arctic Circle.  From time-to-time small numbers may migrate to southern Canada and the northern reaches of the contiguous United States.  Larger numbers infrequently show-up in an event called an owl ‘irruption’.  

What is the cause of an irruption?  Possibly fluctuations in food supply.  It is hypothesized that a temporary abundance of lemmings allows the owls to successfully raise large families and then these young owls disperse southward by the hundreds to avoid competition with older birds for winter territories.  Similarly, shortages of prey prompt these birds to move from their normal wintering grounds.

These owls hunt during daylight hours and will roost on almost anything. They like flat open land (it’s what they know), sometimes sitting on the ground, but more often on hay bales, fence posts, telephone posts, rock piles, muskrat houses, tree snags, silos, and other structures.  Snowy Owls will dine upon almost any live thing that moves - voles, mice, lemmings, waterfowl, rabbits, muskrats, weasels, and pigeons. Other bird species are taken as well. They swallow small prey whole.

 

It is notoriously challenging to estimate population numbers for this iconic species.  Nevertheless, recent data suggests that the snowy owl population is much smaller than previously thought and declining.  This bird is now listed as vulnerable to global extinction.

 

Because these birds are not accustomed to seeing humans they likely will appear fearless in your presence.  Approach them with caution and observe them at a distance.  Do not flush them.  The rare sighting of this beautiful bird can be a once in a lifetime experience.  Sorta like seeing a ghost.

 

Learn more about snowy owl sightings near you here.

Squeegee

One of my pals purchased this for me.

A new squeegee.

You're probably thinking:  What the hell for?

It's for the electric sports car in the background.  My Ford Mustang Mach E, Premium AWD, Extended Range, Battery Electric Vehicle.  Because I no longer visit a gas station and clean the glass while filling my tank I now perform this task at home.  Yes, I have to fill a bucket with warm soapy water the scrub the bugs off the glass.

Rated at 346 horsepower and 428 pounds-feet of torque, when you stomp on the gas (a figure of speech) on this blue rocket and accelerate from 0 to 60 MPH in 3.9 seconds you squash a lot more bugs.  

This will also come in handy during the winter.

 

Nuts

Just returned from running the trail camera trap line.

One smashed cam still strapped to a tree and two others on the ground with busted straps. All had their SD cards.

Just like all the household appliances self-destructing in 2024, maybe it’s the same with the cameras?

The smashed cam was way-old so no big deal. Perhaps the memory cards will tell the tale.

Meanwhile, from a couple weeks ago, the fox squirrels have been busy gathering acorns.

Stay-tuned….

 

VELCRO®

The VELCRO® brand of hook and loop was invented by a man named George de Mestral in the 1940's while hunting in the Jura mountains in Switzerland. 

Mr. de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, realized that the tiny hooks of the cockle-burs were stuck on his pants and in his dog's fur and wondered how they attached themselves.

From our walk this morning there were sticker pickers.

Millions of them.

It took a couple of hours but the FURminator got most of them removed.

 

Trailmaster

I've blogged about this before.

More of the same.

Brushing-out the trails with the Rhino bush hog is that it is dusty, stinky and loud.  There is the roar of the diesel motor, the clanging and clattering of the blades and and gear box on the mower.  And the stink of diesel exhaust.  A curious phenomenon that comes with brushing-out trails is that the deer will emerge from nowhere and stand at a polite distance and watch me before moving-on.  

 From the trail camera trapline there were these photos.  Me mowing out the field of view on camera #3 and then immediately after I exited the scene a doe and her fawn checking it out.

Go figure...

 

Trailmaster

Brushing-out the trails with the Rhino bush hog is that it is dusty, stinky and loud.  There is the roar of the diesel motor, the clanging and clattering of the blades and and gear box on the mower.  And the stink of diesel exhaust.  A curious phenomenon that comes with brushing-out trails is that the deer will emerge from nowhere and stand at a polite distance and watch me before moving-on.  

From the trail camera trapline there were these photos.  Me mowing out the field of view on camera #5 and then 20 minutes later mama and the twins checking it out.

Go figure...